Raising children will soon be done not with colouring pencils but with iPads. This and other technological developments can no longer be ignored, says Danny Mekić during the Week van de Ondernemer (Week of the Entrepreneur) in the MKBuzz.

Multidisciplinary internet expert and young entrepreneur Danny Mekić is one of the speakers during the Week van de Ondernemer, as well as a guest in the MKBuzz, parked in front of the entrance to the Beatrixtheater in Utrecht, the Netherlands to tell the story of entrepreneurship to, as well as hear it from, visitors to that large entrepreneurs’ event.

Article by Lenneke Arts

‘Entrepreneurs underestimate the online’
Mekić tells the story of entrepreneurship and talks about how entrepreneurs can use the internet cleverly. Currently, they underestimate social media and online entrepreneurship, says the expert. “They approach the internet like something that’s supposed to be very convenient, which also makes them overestimate it again: they forget to give it a purpose and just muck around with it.”

Using Twitter wrong
The fact that the increase in the number of Twitter- and Facebook accounts is starting to slow down seems understandable to Mekić. “That’s what always happens with phenomena starting to become common. When it’s still new, everyone wants to be part of it. But by now, the ones who were the first to join are losing interest and don’t use their accounts any more. Mekić considers Twitter mainly a personal medium. “Even though many entrepreneurs would like their employees to use Twitter to spread their company’s commercial message. Don’t do that! Use Twitter as a way to show your company is staffed by human beings.”

Paid social media models
The internet expert notices another development in the area of social media: the trend of social media introducing paid features more and more. “They’re switching to new revenue models, like Facebook charging money for sending messages to people who aren’t friends with you. And the development that comes after that is users looking for new, free platforms. As a result, you see one social network after another in a short time.”

Raising babies with iPads
Avoiding developments like these is impossible for entrepreneurs, according to Mekić. “These developments are happening, there’s no way around them. We don’t raise babies with colouring pencils any more, we give them iPads now. And with the introduction of 4g internet, tomorrow’s washing machines will operate themselves.”

‘Offline and online will become one’
The offline world and the online world will merge together, the expert expects. Mekić: “Currently, these two worlds don’t cooperate very smoothly yet. Entrepreneurs sometimes still have trouble connecting the two, even though there are more and more possibilities and experiments. Business meetings in a Google Hangout, an interactive tour in a physical shopping centre.” Mekić doesn’t think the online world is going to take over the offline world. “Look around you, here at the Week van de Ondernemer. For four days, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs come together here. Each of them has a company or a startup company and they want to talk about and work on it offline too. I don’t think everything should be entirely online, either, so that one day people would just stop ever leaving the house because everything is online. But you should make the online world part of your strategy. Think about how you can add the online world to your offline world.”